Author/Editor     Sa, Maria J; Pereira, Artur; Paula-Barbarosa, Manuel M; Maderia, Maria D
Title     Anatomical asymmetries in the human hippocampal formation
Type     članek
Source     Acta Stereol
Vol. and No.     Letnik 18, št. 2
Publication year     1999
Volume     str. 161-76
Language     eng
Abstract     Unbiased stereological methods were used to evaluate whether in humans there are right/left asymmetries in the morphology of the hippocampal formation. The quantitative parameters analyzed were the volume of the layers, the total number of neurons and the mean neuronal volume. In the dentate gyrus, the estimations, were carried out in the granule cell layer and in the polymorphic layer (hilus): in the hippocampus proper they were undertaken in the pyramidal cell layers of the CA1 and CA3-2 fields. The analyses were performed in glycomethyacrylate-embeded sections, sampled using a volume of the layers was estimated by applying the Principle of Cavalieri; the total number of neurons in each layer was estimated by means of the optical fractionator; the mean somatic and nuclear volumes of the granule, hilar and pyramidal neurons were estimated by using vertical sections and the nucleator method. The right hippocampal formation contained 20% more granule cells and 14% more CA3-2 pyramidal neurons than the left. No right/left asymmetric were found in the number of hilar and CA1 pyramidal cells. The volume of the cell-containing layers and of the hilus was similar in the right and left hippocampal formations. Likewise, no right/left differences were detected in the mean somatic and nuclear columes of the granule, hilar and pyramidal neurons.
Descriptors     HIPPOCAMPUS
NEURONS
PYRAMIDAL CELLS
CELL COUNT
AUTOPSY